


Predicament Escape

by AllThatJaz4



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21838930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllThatJaz4/pseuds/AllThatJaz4
Summary: To most people around the world, Goro Akechi died in early December before Masayoshi Shido had his change of heart and before the Phantom Thieves saved the world from merging with Mementos. But did the teen detective really die?--------A one-shot fanfic for a possible escape Akechi could have pulled at the end of Peraona 5.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	Predicament Escape

**Author's Note:**

> I really love Goro and wish he had a confidant like the rest of the Thieves and not auto-rank with the story in P5 Vanilla. All the more reason to be excited for P5R I suppose!  
> \---  
> This is my first published fanfic in possibly 10 years!
> 
> It's baffling that it's been that long but please enjoy!

How I had managed it… I barely believed it myself.

…  
…...  
…

As the bulkhead door closed between myself and the Phantom Thieves I wish I could have savored those faces just a little longer. To see the looks of realization of what my plan was. To see Joker's face as he realized his greatest rival and adversary was planning to sacrifice himself.

I tell them to leave through the metal partition. Tell them how foolish they were to try and keep me around. They had known my plan. They had known just how horrible of a person I had become, and yet they still tried to take me to their side. Even after fighting me as my true ugly self and now through the metal wall between us.

But I don't have much time left. After that long fight with those who once called me a teammate I was exhausted and had no real energy to face my cognitive self. Even if he was only a cognition, that gunshot wouldn't keep him long. It only stood to piss him off and if he was anything like the real me that wasn't something I was looking forward to facing. The Phantom Thieves were already enough of a roadblock to my masterplan, but this double of mine truly was the wrench in my operation. There was no possible way I could do what I had intended on my own…. Not in my condition and not with a guy with my face and a gun out for my head. I had to pass it on. Give it to someone more reliable. More responsible. The true hero of Japan.

I call out to Joker, making a deal with him. Knowing him he wouldn't refuse. How could he? That goody two-shoe would never pass up the ability to help someone. Especially under these circumstances. I tell him to change my deplorable father's heart. To right him of his crimes to Japan. To finally repent for all he had done to innocent people around the country. To Ren. My mother. … me.

His response is barely audible through the metal door, but I knew well enough that he agreed to my wishes. Now I had no more responsibilities left. No more weight on my shoulders. Joker would finish this for me. And I would have no more worries.

My cognitive double stands, cursing me for my still being alive. My body hurt, wracked with aches from my previous fight and with no real will or power to do much but keep my own gun steadied at my reflected ugly face.

….

And yet… someway… somehow… my hand reached into my pocket. My will to stay alive taking hold of my body, afraid of death. Afraid of everything ending right there. I had no more responsibilities, no more revenge plots to carry out. But I wasn't ready to go.

With speed I wasn't aware I had I pulled out my phone and exited the metaverse, releasing a bullet just as I did so, aiming at my fake's head.

If I had hit my mark, I did not know. I allowed myself to relax, letting go of all of the tension I was forcing my body to hold and I fell to the ground. The feeling of grass ticked my face as I took a moment to breath, glad that at the very least… I was alive and out of danger. But I wasn't out of the woods just yet. I was still at the Diet Building. Inside the gates no less. I forced myself up and get a look of my surroundings before making myself limp away from anyone's view.

No one could see me. No one could know I was there. I go through escape routes in my head, planning out which one would lead to the least amount of witnesses. I settle on leaving from a side gate, leaving as if I had a reason to be there in the first place.

A practiced smile and a saunter that said I-had-places-to-be seemed to be enough to not alert the guard, or he had just been looking elsewhere. I had no time to dwell on the possible variables. I had to get out of here.

Managing not to collapse along the way I make it to my apartment, sufficiently crashing into the front walkway as soon as the door was safely locked behind me. My eyelids closed and I had no energy to stop them.

When I had woken up, it was the next day. I was late for school but that was the least of my worries. I had to leave. I needed to get out of this city, to get away from all of these choices I made, all of the constant reminders of who my father was and what I tried to do to him.

With sore muscles working once more I pack my things, what little I had, and start cutting myself off from "Goro Akechi". It was an alias anyway. One meant to be thrown away as soon as my father got what he deserved. And if Joker kept his promise, he was getting just that.

I called my job and quit, claiming that I planned on focussing more on studies for college. Told the school I was focusing on my job as it gave me an income to live off of. I canceled my phone plan, gave my landlord my leaving notice and pulled out all the money I had to my name before closing my bank card. Within days of fighting the Phantom Thieves I had completely cut all ties between me and the life I had made in Tokyo, leaving for the last place I had called home. My old foster family may not take me back in but at least I knew the area.

As soon as I left the train station I went to work starting over in this town. I got a new bankcard under my real name, and found someone willing to rent me an apartment. Starting over wasn't easy, it wasn't when I did so in Tokyo as "Akechi" and it sure as hell wasn't here. But I didn't care. So long as I could put that old me in the past and feel free. Even if I had no confidants, no one to confide in, no friends. I was free now.

As the days went by, news from Tokyo about the Phantom Thieves could be heard everywhere. They were still the hot topic even outside the big city. I didn't even have to look to know they had successfully changed my father's heart, the gossiping of the neighbors gave me that information.

I tried to ignore any other news, focusing on being able to survive again on my own. I cut my hair, changing my look but still get asked if I am the infamous Detective Prince. I start preparing for College Entrance exams and filling out paperwork for my application. I find a job at one of the local shops and when the money allowed it, a new phone plan.

A year or so goes by and the number of times I get mistaken for my old alias becomes countable on one hand weekly. I suppose even with a different look it was hard to completely erase the past. I don't look back, at least not often. There are days I miss what I had made in Tokyo. The idol persona, the well paying gig, the friends…

I wonder about the Phantom Thieves now and again, wondering what happened to them after Shido's change of heart but I could never bring myself to reach out. Knowing them they were just fine. Living their lives together as friends and family. With or without the metaverse. It was almost infuriating, but in a good way. Thoughts that once fueled my rage now push me along and make me strive for normalcy again in my life, using my newfound second chance to do just that.

I hadn't ever imagined that I might bump into something from my old life so abruptly on my day off.

"Akechi?"

At first I thought it was another fan, one I had to gently brush away from the truth with the excuse of mistaken identity, but seeing the mop of frizzy dark hair caused a lump in my throat.

The look on his face said a lot and yet so little all at the same time, his usual stoic demeanor breaking momentarily at the shock of my face.

"I'm sorry, who?" I ask, feigning confusion. "I don't think I've heard that name before. Perhaps you've mistaken me for someone else?"

He didn't seem to buy it. "How? I thought you…"

"Sorry, I still don't know what you're talking about." I scratch the back of my head, doing my best not to fall back to who I was. Because as far as the world was concerned, Akechi did die that day and the man I was now had nothing to do with him.

But Ren was stubborn and didn't seem to want the conversation to end just yet. "... Shido's in prison."

"The politician? Yeah I heard about that. But why are you telling me?"

"He's confessed to everything."

"Quite a record on that one. Glad he's doing his time. But I'm sorry I should be on my wa--"

"Wait!"

He grabbed my wrist, holding on as if I would disappear any moment. The look in his eyes seemed to be searching. For an answer, a sign, a reason for why I was trying to dodge him. He didn't want to believe he was wrong.

The grip finally let up as I was able to pull my arm free once again, too shocked to use this moment as my escape. I watched as he looks down, processing his thoughts behind lenseflared glasses and thick frizzy locks. Finally a small voice escapes his lips. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." I wave a hand politely. "It happens a lot. Guess I just have a recognizable face is all."

"Yeah….. Ren Amamiya."

"Hm?"

"My name. It's Ren." He holds out his hand towards me. "It's nice to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you too." I take his hand and shake it in greeting. It wasn't quite how I expected things would go, and to be frank I never expected to run into any of the thieves this soon, but maybe this was a blessing. Finally something good sent my way to make up for all of the bad luck I've had until I left Tokyo. Whether or not Ren believed what I said to him, maybe… just maybe… we could be true friends this time around.

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was fun to write and I might possibly write an omake for it where this Goro meets the rest of the Thieves if enough people are interested in that.
> 
> Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know how it is!


End file.
